Barbers, Nail Salons and Vape Shops

[Hibrandenburg]

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Yes but as far as the investigating goes, it’s usually once they have evidence of the drug dealing that they go after the money laundering? Do they ever investigate suspicious businesses that leads them to drug dealers? If that makes sense?


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A cynic might think that as long as the crooks are paying income tax on their ill gotten gains, then the authorities might be tempted to look the other way.

[CropleyWasGod]

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A cynic might think that as long as the crooks are paying income tax on their ill gotten gains, then the authorities might be tempted to look the other way.

The reality is that, once the crime has been established and prosecuted, all of the proceeds are due to be paid over. It can be a long and costly process, though.

Up until relatively recently, it was the case that tax was due on all criminal activities. And that's all. In theory, once you'd paid tax on your £2.5m train robbery money, you could keep the rest. Mental, but true.

[Stairway 2 7]

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A cynic might think that as long as the crooks are paying income tax on their ill gotten gains, then the authorities might be tempted to look the other way.

Probably more tax percentage in Britain paid through drug profit than there is through many huge companies and people who pay their tax in the Bahamas ect ha

[Hibrandenburg]

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The reality is that, once the crime has been established and prosecuted, all of the proceeds are due to be paid over. It can be a long and costly process, though.

Up until relatively recently, it was the case that tax was due on all criminal activities. And that's all. In theory, once you'd paid tax on your £2.5m train robbery money, you could keep the rest. Mental, but true.

That's mental. I guess if the crooks were to hide their swag,then it might be more beneficial to tax them.

[Keith_M]

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The wee shop beside my barber is called Jasda.

Ice Cream shop just along the road from me is called 'For Fudge Sakes'

The owner has another in Glasgow's southside called 'What the Fudge'

[Ozyhibby]

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Ice Cream shop just along the road from me is called 'For Fudge Sakes'

The owner has another in Glasgow's southside called 'What the Fudge'

There is a big ice cream shop on Gorgie road that I have never seen anyone in.


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[danhibees1875]

Why open up in Edinburgh? Even on the fringes of the city it must be relatively expensive and more at risk of being caught than opening up in a small town somewhere?

[Bristolhibby]

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Ice Cream shop just along the road from me is called 'For Fudge Sakes'

The owner has another in Glasgow's southside called 'What the Fudge'

My Brother-in-law lived in Airlie Beach in Queensland. Their local curry house was called….Get it India.

Works particularly well with an Aussie accent.

J

[RyeSloan]

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Why open up in Edinburgh? Even on the fringes of the city it must be relatively expensive and more at risk of being caught than opening up in a small town somewhere?

I’d assume the opposite.

Plenty of small scale retail empty across the city thanks to the ‘death of the high street’ and a pretendy large population to service.

Much less conspicuous than setting up in a small town.

Oh and closer to the main source of the ill gotten gains as well!

As for being caught? Hmm hardly. Seems to be openly tolerated while the honest person continues to be forever taxed more as that’s the easy thing to do.

Reminds me a bit of this story where banning the guy for being a director for 9 years seems to be the sum of the punishment for millions going astray…and only ‘caught’ because it was so egregious.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8j94np0193o.amp

[danhibees1875]

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I’d assume the opposite.

Plenty of small scale retail empty across the city thanks to the ‘death of the high street’ and a pretendy large population to service.

Much less conspicuous than setting up in a small town.

Oh and closer to the main source of the ill gotten gains as well!

As for being caught? Hmm hardly. Seems to be openly tolerated while the honest person continues to be forever taxed more as that’s the easy thing to do.

Reminds me a bit of this story where banning the guy for being a director for 9 years seems to be the sum of the punishment for millions going astray…and only ‘caught’ because it was so egregious.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8j94np0193o.amp

That all makes sense.

It does open up the opportunity to follow ones vocational dreams if you can top up inadequate revenues with dirty money...

[Jack]

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Why open up in Edinburgh? Even on the fringes of the city it must be relatively expensive and more at risk of being caught than opening up in a small town somewhere?

If you don't pay the rent or local taxes it doesn't matter how expensive it would be if you did!

[danhibees1875]

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If you don't pay the rent or local taxes it doesn't matter how expensive it would be if you did!

Why wouldn't they be doing those things?

[Jack]

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Why wouldn't they be doing those things?

It's the American sweetie shop types I was referring to and some others are at it too.

They set up a fairly basic shop and then after all the final demands for payment have reached a climax, or the utilities are cut off, they disappear and turn up in a different location but the same outfit really. If you know what I mean.

Generally government types of payments because they take longest to be chased up.

[silverhibee]

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The ML can often lead them to the main crime.

That's where the reporting by all of those people I mentioned can come in useful. The regime was brought in post 9/11, initially to identify terrorist funding, but was quickly extended and adapted to cover all crimes.... and not just ML.

And the Police are not daft (cue the smartarses ). They will have a fair idea of who the MLs are, but obviously need evidence to tie that back to the main crime.

Be assured the police are not daft, I watched 24 hours in police custody on Monday night, it was about 20 people escaping from a detention centre, they were waiting to be returned back to the country they came from, most had served time for cultivating cannabis, I think 14 were caught that night but the rest got away and were picked up by some Albanian guy, the police started to raid cannabis farms down South and a few I think were told to hand themselves into custody to take the heat off, eventually the main guy who escaped was caught in a house with a staggering amount of drugs and cash, it did seem though that the police do know about these weed farms but maybe don’t do nothing about them until they need to.

[Billy Whizz]

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It's the American sweetie shop types I was referring to and some others are at it too.

They set up a fairly basic shop and then after all the final demands for payment have reached a climax, or the utilities are cut off, they disappear and turn up in a different location but the same outfit really. If you know what I mean.

Generally government types of payments because they take longest to be chased up.

Happens all the time with Independent grocery stores. Don’t pay a few things, like rates and a few utilities, then set up the business under another company name, but same people

[Scouse Hibee]

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Happens all the time with Independent grocery stores. Don’t pay a few things, like rates and a few utilities, then set up the business under another company name, but same people

Happens more often than you think and not just grocery stores. Some well know Edinburgh businesses too!

[overdrive]

Kind of related to all of this, I've noticed a few times when ordering a takeaway on the likes of Just Eat, Uber Eats, Deliveroo, etc. that all of a sudden a new takeaway will pop up.

Excited that there is a new place open, I look at the address given on the app and google it. Google returns an existing establishment but of the same type of cuisine. So you would assume, they've closed down and someone has moved in or perhaps they've re-branded. Perhaps they are one of these 'ghost' or 'virtual' restaurants that rent space from an existing restaurant/take-away to cut overheads. Except you then realise that the original place is also on the same app with the same menu as the 'new' place. You drive past the address and it is still the original branding.

I'm convinced its a tax dodge, most likely VAT. Channel sales through multiple different businesses to keep turnover below the VAT-registration threshold.

On a related note, my wife when we were early dating really wanted to take me to her favourite Indian restaurant at her end of town. I realised the menu was suspiciously like the menu that one of my favourite Indian restaurants at my end of town. A lot of dishes that I hadn't seen elsewhere other than 'my' place were on this menu. A quick Google showed it was exactly the same menu. Assumed it must be the same owners even although the names of the places were different. So I asked the boss man if they were the same people. He looked absolutely petrified and started mumbling. Eventually said "similar families own both restaurants... distant relatives". He was really spooked by me asking this and I assumed he thought I was a HMRC Inspector. However, a year or so later one of them got raided by the Immigration Authorities. I suspect that might have been the reason for him getting spooked at my perfectly innocent question.

[overdrive]

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Happens more often than you think and not just grocery stores. Some well know Edinburgh businesses too!

Bagel woman being a high profile recent example.

[Billy Whizz]

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Happens more often than you think and not just grocery stores. Some well know Edinburgh businesses too!

I know it does, and I know of people who make a living out of this, advising companies, take a % of the savings

[CropleyWasGod]

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Kind of related to all of this, I've noticed a few times when ordering a takeaway on the likes of Just Eat, Uber Eats, Deliveroo, etc. that all of a sudden a new takeaway will pop up.

Excited that there is a new place open, I look at the address given on the app and google it. Google returns an existing establishment but of the same type of cuisine. So you would assume, they've closed down and someone has moved in or perhaps they've re-branded. Perhaps they are one of these 'ghost' or 'virtual' restaurants that rent space from an existing restaurant/take-away to cut overheads. Except you then realise that the original place is also on the same app with the same menu as the 'new' place. You drive past the address and it is still the original branding.

I'm convinced its a tax dodge, most likely VAT. Channel sales through multiple different businesses to keep turnover below the VAT-registration threshold.

On a related note, my wife when we were early dating really wanted to take me to her favourite Indian restaurant at her end of town. I realised the menu was suspiciously like the menu that one of my favourite Indian restaurants at my end of town. A lot of dishes that I hadn't seen elsewhere other than 'my' place were on this menu. A quick Google showed it was exactly the same menu. Assumed it must be the same owners even although the names of the places were different. So I asked the boss man if they were the same people. He looked absolutely petrified and started mumbling. Eventually said "similar families own both restaurants... distant relatives". He was really spooked by me asking this and I assumed he thought I was a HMRC Inspector. However, a year or so later one of them got raided by the Immigration Authorities. I suspect that might have been the reason for him getting spooked at my perfectly innocent question.

It's not a dodge, it's illegal HMRC are quite hot on this, but they often do need "intelligence" to act.

[Smartie]

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Happens more often than you think and not just grocery stores. Some well know Edinburgh businesses too!

I was expecting the Hearts creditors list to make an appearance shortly after this post.

[overdrive]

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It's not a dodge, it's illegal HMRC are quite hot on this, but they often do need "intelligence" to act.

Oh I know. Was using 'dodge' a bit flippantly. My father-in-law is a retired HMRC manager. He has some stories about the part of his career investigating these sorts of places. Think he got a good few meals out of it too under the guise of checking how busy places were

[CropleyWasGod]

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Oh I know. Was using 'dodge' a bit flippantly. My father-in-law is a retired HMRC manager. He has some stories about the part of his career investigating these sorts of places. Think he got a good few meals out of it too under the guise of checking how busy places were

[Lendo]

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Bagel woman being a high profile recent example.

Yeah forgot about her. Read she was wanting to make a third comeback despite going in to administration twice and skipping out on loads of debt and tax.

[Stairway 2 7]

I think it's cute that people think the authorities would stop this. Probably like when the police show a picture of seized gear saying they were cracking down on dealing, sound

[BS44]

The 24 hour arcade/casino on Shandwick Place and Nicholson Street must come under the dodgy category too? I sometimes have a peek in when I'm wandering by and most times the places are empty apart from staff, never seen either busy

[jamie_1875]

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The 24 hour arcade/casino on Shandwick Place and Nicholson Street must come under the dodgy category too? I sometimes have a peek in when I'm wandering by and most times the places are empty apart from staff, never seen either busy

A 24hr laundry facility? I think it's just machines as well so go in with a few hundred quid and play a game for a £1 and "cash out".

[Paulie Walnuts]

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A 24hr laundry facility? I think it's just machines as well so go in with a few hundred quid and play a game for a £1 and "cash out".

Would that not just get you your cash back?

[jamie_1875]

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Would that not just get you your cash back?

Different cash to what you took in though?

[Hibs4185]

It’s not just money laundering. It’s for immigration reasons too.

We used to go to a kebab shop for years in town. Every 2-3 months there would be 3-4 new staff arrive and the old ones would move on. It usually was cousins or so they said.

Similarly I’ve been going to a barber now for 6 years. Again every month a new barber appears who can’t cut hair or speak English. He sweeps the floor, learns how to cut hair and eventually he gets basic phrases and does basic haircuts.

I know for a fact there is one main guy who opens barbershops and gets staff in. He also has flats so they pay him rent for the flat and rent for working in the barbers.

Whether it’s smuggling gangs offering a semi professional life in Britain service or genuinely family members coming to join other family, immigration is definitely a big part of it.